


A Sign in the Shadows

by astudyinpanda



Category: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Video Game), TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 00:18:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10204259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astudyinpanda/pseuds/astudyinpanda
Summary: Talion and the mysterious wraith experience finding pieces of the past very differently. The human's not sure they're all worth what he has to go through to get them.





	

Through Talion's eyes, the shallow cave was empty, but the wraith's sight found what his could not. The half-buried metal drew them closer. Tramping orc feet above their hiding place faded beyond hearing. Talion did not resist the object's summons, but he reached for it slowly. Its touch was a chance for clarity, but even if it did not grant that, there would be pain.

His fingers closed around the relic, so that its edge dug into his palm. He would have whatever there was to learn from it, no matter the cost. This relic was small, leaf-shaped, formed of untarnished silver despite its age. A belt buckle, perhaps. It shimmered through the dirt that still clung to it.

The memory came on them like solidifying mist in the depths of Talion's mind. Unseen, the wraith sighed as a piece of himself long missing was returned. Agony flared outward from Talion's heart, not from the metal in his hand. Instinct told him to release it, but he clutched it more tightly. He would see this thing through, for Ioreth. For Dirhael. For his own life, now lost.

Whatever the memory held for them could only be seen when Talion was asleep. He and the wraith would be helpless beneath the earth, in the depths of Mordor, with enemies on all sides. The memory burned inside him, fast and inescapable. Talion sank his teeth into the hand that held the buckle and screamed.

_Heated mithril smelled like no other metal in the forge. It seemed distant even beneath his tools, cool when it was white hot and bending into form. This was the first time he had worked mithril, yet he knew this with the far-sight of one who had forged many mithril treasures. New or familiar, to shape it was a joy he never thought to experience, or never thought to experience again. And this, beautiful though it was, was only practice for the works to come._

The memory had been a short one. Talion knew this, as he considered its meaning, because he was still on his knees. If it had been longer, he would've fallen.

As the pain receded and Talion caught his breath, the wraith appeared at his side. "I made it in Eregion," the wraith said. "So long ago."

"How does that help us?" The buckle -- mithril, not silver, worth more than every belonging Talion had ever owned, if he sold them all together -- was light in his palm, and pretty as such things went, but not related to any of the troubles he and the wraith were fighting to end.  "We already knew you were a smith."

"Not just a smith," said the wraith severely. "An artificer. Mithril takes great skill and patience to shape."

Though the teeth marks in Talion's skin had faded, one simple detail from the wraith's past hardly seemed worth the price he'd paid for it. "Well, perhaps your slinking friend will take it in trade for more useful information." He rose and stalked toward the mouth of the cave. Behind him, he felt the wraith disappear into his soul, from whence it came. The answers they searched for lay somewhere beyond, in the night.


End file.
